


Reflection

by moonstoneJJ



Category: One Piece
Genre: Brotherhood, Gen, I tried at least for feels, feeeels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-07
Updated: 2016-09-07
Packaged: 2018-08-13 18:36:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7981915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonstoneJJ/pseuds/moonstoneJJ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ace, Sabo and Luffy shared their childhood but after they all got seperated - due to somewhat unfortunate circumstances - what are the things the brothers missed from each others' lives? What did they have to go through alone? </p>
<p>What if they could see? </p>
<p>This piece was written for the OPReverseBang, in collaboration with the lovely Caitlin who had the idea and presented it in her beautiful art.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reflection

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, I am writing this in a complete rush so I might go over the note again and change it or something. Go check out Caitlin's art that goes along with it, you can see it here: http://kurapikababu.tumblr.com/post/150111449635/reflection-for-opreversebang-when-someone-stares 
> 
> Now, enjoy and let me know what you think!  
> Please keep in mind that I am not a native speaker and there might be some weird things, so feel free to let me know about anything you find. 
> 
> Love,  
> Julia

Sabo wasn’t sure what to make of the island once he arrived there with Koala. They were supposed to do a quick check-in on their way back to base because apparently, there had been some kind of report that had ticked Dragon off. It was whatever to him, sometimes the old man was just plain weird. He had checked the reports himself before they had left for their actual mission – which had gone over with a few more detours, a few more bruises and a lot more yelling than originally planned but they’d keep the unimportant details to themselves. Ivan would dote on them too much if they gave them the whole story. Anyway, the reports from this island had been fine.  
He sighed. The trip had been tiring and this was just another thing on his to-do-list. Which he wouldn’t care about that much if it was just him but there was a certain redhead bugging him endlessly like a buzzing fly around his head whenever he decided to ignore his responsibilities for a while.  
“Come on, lazy ass!” Koala was already waving at him from the docks while he was still leaning on the railing, trying to figure out how he could get out of this and just take a nap.  
“Yeah, yeah”, he murmured and jumped off board. The place was nothing special, seriously. A small town near the harbor and endless woods. End of story. They were important for resources for the Revos but other than that? Vast nothingness.  
He let out another sigh and stared miserably at his partner, trying to get some pity out of her. She glared at him and raised her fist. Of course. No love around here.  
“So, what exactly are we supposed to do here? Why did he send us anyway? Aren’t we too important or something?” He stuffed his fists in his pockets and trotted ahead.  
From the corner of his eye, he could see the way she rolled her eyes and he suppressed a grin. Her sense of duty was completely hilarious to him. In his own opinion, it was perfectly fine to get things done without worrying constantly.  
Even though he’d probably be dead twice over or at least seriously injured at this point if she hadn’t been there with him all the time. Well. He made a mental note to give her a better birthday present this year.  
He tried to get something positive out of the trip. The road leading into town was pretty. Red bricks, flowers all around. Nice. He surpressed a yawn.  
“We are going to check in with the mayor, the logical thing to do, idiot.”  
She said something else after that. He frowned, trying to listen more closely. But her words seemed all jumbled, just one big splash of sounds. He turned around to her and almost kneeled over. White noise filled his ears. His head felt like it was about to drop off his shoulders.  
Koala’s voice again. He felt her hand on his shoulder, shaking him. He could barely stand. Was he still standing?  
Then it was over. “Sabo!” Koala’s brown eyes bored into his and he gave her a small smile. “What is going on?”  
“I don’t know” he murmured, pressing a hand to his forehead.  
There was something in the forest. He could feel it tugging at his gut, telling him to come closer, to find it. It was waiting for him and him specifically. It had sent the noise. Somehow, he just knew.  
“Koala.” His own voice sounded strange to his ears. “I need to do something.”  
“What? Are you kidding me?” she questioned. “Do you maybe wanna tell me what just happened to you? Did you eat something funny?”  
He shot her a look. “Please”.  
“Well, then you tell me! You had me worried.”  
He sighed. “I… I am not sure but I think I can figure it out if I go into the forest, okay? I can’t explain right now, I just… come on, I’ll be back soon, promise.” The tugging feeling in his stomach grew stronger.  
She studied him long and hard before crossing her arms and huffing. “Fine. Just know that I am not happy with that and if anything goes wrong, that is your responsibility, got it? Unbelievable.”  
Relieved, he was about to set off but she stopped him again. “Shouldn’t I come with you? I feel like I should come with you.”  
“No!”  
His answer was much louder than intended and he must have looked as shocked as she did because her face softened immediately. “Sabo, are you okay?”  
“Yes. Yes. I’ll be back in an hour. I promise. I’ll meet you at the ship, alright? No need to worry.”  
“You are being super weird and cryptic and of course I am worried. Do you have your den den mushi with you?”  
Her concern was nice and familiar and warm and he smiled encouragingly at her. “Sure. You bug me about it all the time.”  
She didn’t answer, just studied him more intently. He was trying not to squirm because the pull was growing stronger by the second. Something close smelled of pine trees and honey and apple blossoms.  
Finally, she nodded. “Okay. If you’re not back in an hour, I am calling Ivan-chan and you will be responsible for everything after that. Also, if the mayor turns out to be actually crazy and I die, it’s your fault.”  
“Yes, Ma’m. See you in a bit!” He was dashing off before he had finished that sentence.  
Soon, he was surrounded by maple trees and pine trees and just – lots of trees. They were green and tall, towering over him and robbing the place off most sunlight. There was no clear path which seemed weird. How did the village people go into the forest? Was there another way in and he was being an idiot? Did they just not go in?  
There were also no birds singing. He slowed down and clutched his pipe tighter, not yet used to relying on the mera mera no mi. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t make out any sounds at all. No crunching leaves, no wind blowing through the trees. He stopped. The tugging feeling in his stomach was gone as well and his haki did not make out any other living things around him.  
“Not creepy at all”, he whispered and slowly set one foot in front of the other.  
Then he saw it. A cave, almost completely covered in moss, entrance small and hidden near the ground. He inched closer, holding his breath. There shouldn’t be anything hiding inside but years and years in the New World had taught him to never let his guard down in situations like this. Carvings in the stone near the entrance caught his searching gaze. They looked familiar but he couldn’t read them. Robin probably could.  
He took a deep breath and put his pipe away. Lighting one finger on fire, he made his way into the cave. 

 

“Luffy, get back here right now!”  
Nami’s voice rang across the beach but he ignored it. Sometimes he wondered if she was ever going to stop nagging him about things. She really should know better by now. He grinned. Then again, it was fun. She probably thought so too or she’d just stop. Also, she had to admit, even though adventure tended to hit them right in the face more often than not, it couldn’t hurt to go look for it from time to time.  
“Luffy!” She apparently did not want to admit that.  
“Oy, Sanji, I bet you can’t make a meal out of the mystery animals I will kill in this jungle!” He was already half way surrounded by huge giant trees covered in liana.  
“Jerk, of course I can, as if you didn’t know that!”  
“Usopp, Chopper, you wanna come?” Luffy yelled back towards the ship, admiring the giant beetles running around on the tree trunks.  
“They’ve already gone the other way, together with Zoro and… oh no…” Nami’s voice had gone quiet, almost impossible to hear over the ocean’s waves. “There’s… nobody even remotely responsible… in that combination… Sanji!”  
“Yes, my love?”  
“Go after them. There’s a 20% chance they’ll all die if you don’t.”  
“Yes, darling!”  
“There is supposedly no human population on this island,” Robin interjected, “there isn’t much damage they can do, really.”  
“As if we can take a risk like that. Sanji, take Brook with you, or Franky, I…”  
Luffy couldn’t hear them anymore. It’d be fine. If Zoro didn’t turn up in time for dinner, that only meant that there’d be more meat for himself. Nami would take care of it. Or yell at someone until they would take care of it. He hummed to himself while he walked deeper into the jungle. He remembered that Nami had been confused about the jungle when they’d first arrived. There wasn’t supposed to be one here. It was supposed to be all desert, the air all sandy and dusty and making your throat turn dry. Like in Alabasta. But instead, there was this. Hundreds and thousands of plants and trees and animals. Well. At least, he thought there would be animals. Like in Little Garden. Maybe there’d even be giants here, too. But now that he thought about it, other than the beetles right near the beach, he hadn’t seen anything moving. Weird.  
Mystery jungle.  
The smell of Makino’s apple pie suddenly filled his nose. Immediately, he changed directions. Were there people here after all? The book Robin had had about this island had been wrong before. Maybe those people knew how to make pies the way Makino did them. He would never ever tell Sanji but Makino’s pies were the best in the world. She had always told him that there was a secret ingredient and he could only find out about what it was once he came back after he had become a great pirate. She would be so surprised if he could find out about it before! He grinned.  
“Makino? People who stole Makino’s recipe?” His voice rang out across the path in front of him. Had there been a path before? He wasn’t sure.  
He couldn’t feel a presence but maybe these people were super strong and could hide from his haki. Or they were mystery people who didn’t even know that they could hide from other people’s haki. That would be so cool.  
“Mystery people?”  
No answer. In fact, no noise at all. Huh. He took another step and fell into a hole. 

 

“Stupid old man, stupid Marco, stupid crew…”  
Ace sighed heavily and put his head into his hands. He was so incredibly tired. So tired. So, so, so, so, so tired.  
“Do you realize you’re saying that out loud?”  
“Yes, jerk”, he grumbled. “You’d think, when you’re dead, you could maybe stop being tired. But no, of course, narcolepsy has to freaking haunt me wherever I go.”  
He saw the way Thatch’s eyes lit up and groaned. “Yes, I used the word haunt. Trust me, if there actually was a way to haunt anyone, I’d have a few suggestions.”  
Thatch just smiled at him, the embodiment of innocence. “Me, too, firecracker.”  
“Not an appropriate nickname anymore.”  
“As if I care. So, what’s wrong with you?”  
“Other than being dead?”  
“Yeah.”  
Ace sighed. Again. “I don’t know. It just feels like someone down there on planet Earth is getting themselves into some unnecessary idiotic situations again and I have a pretty good feeling about which idiots they are.”  
“Are they my idiots, too?”  
“Nope. Just mine.”  
Thatch patted his arm sympathetically. “Today’s youth. They’ll be alright. I mean, one of them apparently survived being blown to pieces when he was ten. So. There’s that. And I am pretty sure the other one is indestructible or something.”  
Ace couldn’t help but crack a smile. “Or something, yeah.” He still couldn’t put his relief into words when he had first woken up here and he hadn’t been able to find Sabo anywhere. At first, he had panicked, naturally, but then it had dawned on him that this meant something good. Something really good. And then Luffy never showed up either so that meant he had gotten out of that mess of a war alive.  
“Hey, Ace?”  
“Hm?”  
“You know, you mentioned haunting and…”, Thatch halted his protests holding up a hand, “hear me out. I’ve been here a bit longer than you and I have heard things. About certain times and places. Ya know. Um…”  
Something funny started to gnaw at Ace’s stomach. “What. Spit it out, man.”  
Thatch took a deep breath and continued. “Apparently, once or twice a year… not that we really know much about the amount of time passing up here… anyway, it seems there is a way of… not really coming back or anything, just… under certain circumstances, you can apparently check in with the ones you left behind. I don’t know much, but it has been done.”  
Ace was on his feet before he knew it. “Show me!”  
“It’s not like I have done it. I wouldn’t have pestered you about everybody when you showed up here if I had already made sure they were… okay.” Thatch swallowed and looked down. Ace could relate. Okay was probably not really the state their crew was in. Not with pops up here and them down there.  
Not with themselves up here.  
“But somebody told you about it. Come on. You have to check in with the others for me and I just… I have to know Luffy and Sabo are alright. I have to know where Sabo is, first of all. God, I hope he didn’t end up with his parents or something. Not that I think he’d stick with them for so long but… well, you never know.”  
Thatch smiled. “Yeah, you never know. Okay, come on. You might not like who told me about it, though.”  
“Ah, as if, I don’t…” Realization dawned on him. “Oh my god, no way! Go annoy him by yourself, there’s no way I’ll – ”  
“Ace.”  
“Yeah, yeah.” 

 

Sabo woke up with a headache the size of the mountain he was probably in right now. He couldn’t remember losing consciousness. In fact, he couldn’t remember anything from the moment he’d stepped into this cave.  
Groaning, he sat up, rubbing his forehead. His hat had fallen off at one point and he grabbed it from where it was lying on the floor. “Koala’s gonna kill me”, he murmured to himself and looked around. He was definitely inside the cave, surrounded by stone. The walls were high enough for him to stand up in and he carefully got to his feet. A dim light was illuminating his surroundings but there wasn’t much to see. Just stone - meaning he had no idea where the light’s source was. The entrance? But which direction had he come from?  
It was a fifty-fifty chance so he picked left. His gut told him to. Granted, his stupid gut and the white noise and the smell were what had gotten him into this in the first place, but he was proud of the fact that he rarely learnt from his mistakes.  
After all, where was the fun in that? Life was about messing up.  
It didn’t take him long to end up in a bigger room with perfectly round walls. The ceiling here was higher too and the light was stronger. Mainly because he had found where it was coming from. Right in the middle of the room stood a huge mirror. It was easily twice as high as he was. The golden frame had more of the carvings he had seen by the entrance. They didn’t look like the signs in the poneglyphs but he felt the sense of familiarity again. And the mirror glowed. It wasn’t that strong but it still hurt his eyes when he looked at it for too long.  
He took in the whole room. There were at least a dozen more entries and he quickly took off his hat, placing it by the one he came from.  
Still no sign of anything living around other than himself but there could still be traps. Arrows shooting out of walls, the ground giving away to swallow him up, poisonous dust being released once he stepped on a certain stone… that kind of thing.  
He gingerly picked up a pebble and threw it across the room.  
Nothing.  
Only one thing left to do. He made his way over to the mirror, careful about where he stepped, pausing directly in front of the mirror. He saw himself, covered in dust. His reflection seemed a little weird without his hat on. Probably a sign that he wore it way too often.  
“Okay, what now”, he murmured. “Do I have to ask who’s the fairest of them all or something?”  
No.  
He startled, almost jumping back when the word appeared on the glass.  
“Um, okay.” He looked around. Still just him. “What do I have to do then?”  
Tell me your name.  
Sabo paused. “I feel like there’d be a lot of people who would object to me doing that.”  
The mirror didn’t react.  
“So, what, now I get the silent treatment?” He sighed. Would he deeply regret this decision to give his name to an inanimate object in a secret cave telling him what to do? No doubt about that. Would he still do it?  
“My name is Sabo.” 

 

Luffy stood in front of the mirror scratching his neck.  
Weird.  
After he had fallen down the hole, he had found a very dark, confusing set of tunnels which had eventually led him to this thing. It had simply hung at the end of one of the tunnels like it wasn’t a tunnel at all but a fancy mansion or Vivi’s palace. It looked heavy and it was golden so Nami would probably want it.  
But he wasn’t sure if he could take it off the wall because the mirror also had weird drawings on it so Robin would probably want it too, and sometimes she was weird about everything staying where it was. He never really got why but he didn’t want to upset either one of them. Upsetting them usually meant pain.  
So, he probably had to go get all of the others, take them here and then let them decide. Problem was, he had no idea how he got here or how to get out. He really didn’t feel like punching a hole in the ceiling, it would get super messy and he didn’t want to get yelled at.  
It looked like that was his only option however, so he started to build up some momentum when the mirror caught his attention again.  
What’s your name?  
The writing just appeared out of nowhere. It seemed like it was written on his chest and he quickly looked down to check if there was any ink on his skin like Law had. Nothing. Just on the glass, then.  
“So cool!” A talking mirror! Everybody would be so excited. “I’m Luffy, who are you? Are you trapped in there or something? I could punch you out if you want.”  
Luffy.  
“Your name is Luffy, too?”  
Nothing for a bit, then… No.  
He was a little disappointed at that. He had never met anyone with the same name as himself so he would have liked to have a name twin.  
Would you like to see something?  
“Sure.”  
Give me your hand.  
Luffy placed his palm on the glass. “Now what?”  
Watch. 

 

“I hate you for this”, Ace grumbled for not the first time.  
“Sweetheart, do me a favor and shut up. We got what we wanted, right? So, I am assuming you wanna go first?” Thatch shot him an expectant look. And Ace had to admit that he was right. Dealing with his procreator was not exactly his favorite thing in the world but at least he had never really had to do it while he was still in the world of the living. Granted, that kind of made it worse, but there was no point in being sour about it now. Also, it was really easy to guilt trip Roger into stuff now, especially when Rouge was present. Which is how they got the instructions on what to do.  
Ace nodded. “Yeah, if you’re okay with that.”  
“You know, judging by what you told me, I am pretty sure you have more reason to worry about those two, so… yeah, go ahead.”  
“Gee, thanks, so reassuring.”  
He squared his shoulders and went on. Up here, there weren’t really rooms. But you could still go certain places. Mainly, you had to know where it was you wanted to go. You had to picture it in detail. It was the same when you wanted to find other people. It was all about your mind and your imagination, basically. Of course, this also made it impossible to just stumble upon things or people. You either knew or you didn’t. So he never met people he didn’t actively look for as long as they weren’t looking for him. He wasn’t sure if he would have sought out his parents but they had found him the minute he got here.  
That had been… interesting. But not important right now. It was enough that he just had had to go meet them again.  
Shaking his head, trying to clear his mind, he concentrated on what he had just been told. He needed a mirror. Framed in gold, writing on the frame, huge, bigger than himself. Thatch disappeared out of the corner of his eye and he kept on walking, trying to focus the way he had had to learn when he’d first gotten his devil fruit powers.  
Slowly, his surroundings changed. Everything was still pretty much whitish grey but he could feel that he was somewhere else. There seemed to be walls, all of a sudden. Nothing concrete, just shadows and fog and something telling him that this looked like a cave. In front of him, a shadow started to materialize and he stepped closer. The mirror became more concrete with every breath he took. The golden frame looked ancient, the writings on it confusing but clearly part of a language he didn’t know. Maybe a language as dead as he was. He reached out to touch it and it felt warm under his fingertips. Like it had a soul.  
Won’t you tell me your name?  
The letters appeared on the glass, seemingly out of nowhere. They looked like they were made of fog which slowly filled up the whole glass. His own reflection disappeared.  
Ace arched an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t you buy me a drink first?”  
The foggy letters rearranged themselves.  
I don’t understand.  
“Oh, so there is an ‘I’! Interesting.” He had done so many strange things traveling the grandline, this almost seemed normal. Talking to a mirror.  
He waited for an answer but nothing came. Sighing, he gave in.  
“Fine, no games then. I am Ace. Now, who am I talking to?”  
Ace.  
His own name filled up the glass, growing bigger, smaller, moving around. The foggy stuff looked like he could just reach into the glass and touch it, but he refrained. Better not to upset the thing.  
Look.  
“Pretty much all I am doing, honey.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sabo’s heart was beating faster than a hummingbird’s wings. The mirror seemed to echo his name before the glass turned grey and foggy. Then, out of the fog, a cliff appeared. A cliff he knew all too well. He had stood on it, looking out across at the endless sea, watching the sun set and rise again every day without fail and each day more beautiful. Because each day led him closer to his 17th birthday when he could finally be free for good. This was where he’d grown up.  
But it wasn’t himself on that cliff. No, the mirror showed him two little boys, brats, idiots who stood way too close to the edge. One of them was a little smaller and looked it even more so because he was lying flat on the ground, face pressed into the green grass and gripping his hat tight – which was way too big on him in the first place. It looked like he wanted to sink into ground, to hide under his hat, anything to disappear. His shoulders were shaking. The other one was standing, a serious expression on his young face. Sabo knew that the kid couldn’t be much older than ten at this time but he looked so much older, something hard and heavy in his gaze. The older one was talking. And somehow, Sabo was not surprised that he could hear him. At the same time, he knew on a weird subconscious level that he could only hear it in his head. Had there been somebody else there with him, they wouldn’t hear a thing. Well. Maybe they’d hear the tiny sob he had fruitlessly tried to hold back, completely caught by surprise. Maybe they’d hear him sniffling. In any case, they’d see his eyes glistening, hit by unexpected emotion. Unexpected views.  
But they wouldn’t hear the boy talking about the treasure he had hidden in the woods which had been stolen by somebody. Or how the little one interrupted his brother, telling him that he wanted to be stronger. He wanted to be stronger so nobody would have to die and he could protect everybody.  
He was begging his big brother not to die and Sabo was trying hard not to panic. This must have been right after… after. He knew that it would have been painful; he knew that they had mourned him but he didn’t… Ace had never learnt that he was still alive. Ace and him, they never got their second chance and it wasn’t fair.  
He watched Ace knock Luffy on the head and despite everything, he smiled a little. Ace was yelling about how Luffy should worry about himself first because he was much weaker anyway and Ace didn’t need protection. And then Ace said that he would never die and it took everything in him to keep it together. He took a few deep breaths, trying not to think about the transcripts he had read about Roger’s execution and what was known about his last days. How he had supposedly said the same thing to Silvers Rayleigh during their last meeting. And no matter how awful Ace’s statement felt in hindsight, it made MirrorLuffy sit up and nod. He was still gripping his straw hat like it might fly away any second now but he wasn’t trying to make the earth swallow him up anymore which was good. Ace kept talking about how it was his duty to protect Luffy and that he – Sabo – had told him to look out for their little brother anyway. Sabo exhaled heavily; he had gotten his letter then. Good.  
Ace was still talking, explaining how they needed to be free and that they had to live a life of no regrets. Despite the fact that tears were still threatening to spill from his eyes, Sabo smiled. It was tiny and tentatively. But he was so happy that they had had each other afterwards. They had had the chance to spend their childhood together and they used it and even if it had been his fault that they had to experience loss at such a young age, at least they’d had someone there to carry the load with.  
He just wished they hadn’t needed to carry any load at all.  
The scene faded out and it just now occurred to him to ask questions. Wiping his nose, he tried to make more sense of the mirror but the writing was still illegible to him. “What was that?” he demanded, making his voice sound stronger than it ought to. “How did this work? What just happened?”  
His questions echoed back to him in the big room, unanswered.  
Frustrated, he ran his hand through his hair and was about to turn around, dismissing the whole thing, when another word appeared on the mirror.  
More?  
“Yes!” he replied without thinking. Yesyesyes.  
The mirror became foggy again before he saw Ace once more, alone in the woods with a piece of paper in his hand, openly letting the tears flow he hadn’t show in front of Luffy. Years and amnesia weren’t enough to let Sabo forget that that was his letter. He remembered writing it. Full of hope and dreams, with just a tinge of sadness that he had to leave his brothers behind. He should never have left. They had been fine with him at his parents. They could have had a life without sorrow. But no, he had had to go and mess up their innocent world view, take away from what little they had had. Bitter self-loathing was burning in his throat but he watched on.  
The scene changed. Ace was on a boat, quite a few years older now. Luffy was on the shore, the whole town behind him. They were smiling and waving. That must have been when Ace set sail to become a pirate. Sabo watched them say goodbye and felt himself tear up again. They looked so happy and cheerful. Living their dream. Ace’s boat looked like it might have only lasted him to the next island but who was he to judge. Must have sucked for Luffy to spend three more years training all alone. A wry smile crept onto his face. Probably sucked more for Dadan and the village people. Luffy was insufferable when he was lonely or bored. Shanks was lucky he had gone off by then or he would never have been able to leave the kid behind.  
Another change but it was so slight he didn’t even notice at first. It was pretty much the same scene just with Luffy this time. He looked so tiny. Irrational worry filled him up – they just let this kid leave in that nutshell, all by himself, even though he was a fruit user and could die if he fell into the water? He made a mental note to send Makino an angry letter. Not like she could have done anything to stop the idiot but he needed to do something.  
He wondered how much this mirror had to show him. How did this even work? How did it know who he was and what he wanted to see? But he didn’t have much time to think. He was looking at desert sand now and a small town, a bazar of sorts. A man with a huge tattoo on his back – Whitebeard pirate – was walking along the street. Ace. He had changed since he had set sail; he was bigger and he walked a little different from when he was a kid. He’d always been confident but this was different. He had a certain air about him. Sabo had met people like that. Dragon. And Kuma.  
He knew that Ace had gotten strong but looking at him walk through that town, he realized for the first time just how powerful his brother had become in such a short amount of time. Pride and sorrow were mixing together in his stomach. He was so full of yearning; he just wanted to talk to him again. He wanted to tell him how proud he was.  
Ace was with Luffy now and he almost reached a hand out. What he would give to have been there. They greeted each other excitedly. This was probably the first time they had seen each other since Ace had left. He wondered… oh. This was Alabasta. This was when Luffy first started to cause serious problems. Had he beaten Crocodile at that point? He hadn’t even known that Ace had been there, too. Why? He seemed to be alone and Sabo knew there were no records of the Whitebeard Pirates going this far back on the Grandline. Shaking his head, he chased the thoughts away. It wasn’t important. He watched them arm-wrestle and warmth and love for those two settled over the pain of not having been there. They had each other.  
The next scene was like a slap to the face, immediately leaving him cold and hurting again. All he saw at first was Ace, sitting somewhere dark with his head hanging down. Slowly, more detail crept into place. Stonewalls. Chains. Ace’s bruised skin, bags under his eyes, looking like he hadn’t eaten in days.  
Impel Down. And Sabo knew he was brave but right now, all he wanted was for the mirror to stop. No. He didn’t… he couldn’t watch this. He couldn’t watch this knowing he had been fully capable of intervening and yet, not even remembering a brother who had needed his help. But he stayed. He couldn’t move if he wanted to, his eyes glued to Ace’s face. He was talking but Sabo couldn’t hear anything this time. Somebody must be with him, he thought, and he knew that he had read about this, he knew his cellmate but he couldn’t remember. All he saw was his brother, in pain and so… broken. He had seen Ace desperate and hurt and angry but never like this. Never without an ounce of fight in him. Jesus. What was Impel Down? What kind of place could leave someone like Ace this… this crushed? He felt his fingernails bore into the skin of his palm. When he got back, he was talking to Dragon about this. They needed to do something about that prison. Not even criminals deserved something like this and he knew that the place was full of people who were only criminals in the Government’s eyes.  
The scene changed once more and while it was still mostly fog, he knew what was coming. He knew what he had to watch next. For the briefest moment, he closed his eyes. He wished he wasn’t such a coward but when he saw the pictures in that newspaper, it had been enough to knock him out for days. He couldn’t go through that again. Immediately, he hated himself for that thought. Neither Ace nor Luffy had wanted to go through it either and yet they had had to.  
Opening his eyes, he took in the scene in the mirror, watching from above like a bird. He had seen battlefields before but nothing quite like this. There were just so many people, most of them running and fighting at the same time. His eyes flew from one ridiculously important and powerful person to the next. It really had been the war of the best and to this day, he questioned why Dragon hadn’t wanted them to participate. Sure, it was clearly mindless violence, lives lost too soon. He got that neither Whitebeard nor the Marines would have been convinced to not fight, there was too much at stake for all of them, but Dragon must have known that the outcome of this war would influence the ways of this world for years to come. There were many decisions the man made Sabo understood nothing about.  
Then he saw Luffy amongst the fighters, bruised and battered, making his way through the battle. He didn’t stop to fight back. Somehow, whenever a serious opponent got into his way, somebody else was there to take care of them. His eyes jumped ahead, against his will, following the path his baby brother was trying to take. Ace was kneeling on the scaffold, flanked by Sengoku and Garp who was sitting next to him, looking miserable. He couldn’t even imagine what was going on inside the old man’s head. It was hard enough to stand here. Miles and years apart from this part of history. In that moment, he realized that it didn’t matter that Garp had been there in person. The guy was just as unable to help as Sabo was right now. They were both being tortured by being reduced to simple bystanders.  
Time seemed to move quicker, the view zoomed in to the scaffold, just as Luffy placed a foot onto it. He was mesmerized by that moment. Every fighter seemed to stop and halt for a second. Ace was staring at Luffy, incredulous, his face covered in dirt and tears. You made it.  
And Sabo was sobbing because yes, Luffy had made it. He watched him free Ace, watched him get the handcuffs off, and suddenly they were off the scaffold and running, and yes, they could make it, and no, they didn’t in the end.  
And Sabo was on his knees, because it was all so tragic. He knew Luffy’s what-I-want-I-get-if-I-am-just-obnoxious-enough attitude and his little baby brother had tried everything and more, had nearly gotten himself killed five times over in the process, and he had made it, only to watch his big brother die in front of him after all. Seconds and inches away from freedom, everything had fallen apart.  
He watched. He watched as Akainu’s fist became magma, he watched as Luffy fell, he watched Ace realize his mistake and jump to cover Luffy in the last second.  
“You stupid idiot!” His scream echoed back to him from the cave walls. “You stupid brat, why in the world would you turn around? Why was your pride more important than getting out of there alive, you stupid, mindless, careless idiot? Everything was fine, you bastard!”  
He couldn’t stop the tears and he didn’t care. Luffy caught Ace and he couldn’t even look at Luffy’s face and he couldn’t look away either. If Ace had looked broken in Impel Down, Luffy looked dead.  
Over his own sobs, he could barely make out Ace’s voice which suddenly came out of the mirror again when the sound of battle had been tuned out before.  
“If it hadn’t been for Sabo… and a little brother like you to protect, I might not have wanted to live at all. If you ever meet Dadan again… tell her hi from me, will you? I kinda miss her now that… I know that I am dying. There’s only one thing I regret… I won’t see you achieve your dream.” His voice was interrupted by him trying to take shaky breaths. “But I know that you’ll make it. You’re my little brother, after all. You remember our vow from all that time ago?” Ace smiled. “I regret nothing.”  
“I can’t speak that loudly anymore, Luffy, please tell everyone what I am telling you now. Everyone… old man… and you, Luffy… even though I am so worthless… even though I carry the blood of a demon… thank you for loving me!”  
Ace smiled and closed his eyes. Sabo covered his head in his hands and screamed. 

 

At first, Luffy was really confused as to what to make of the weird mirror. It became all foggy, then he saw Sabo. He was holding his pipe and looked like he was about to attack somebody. “Oy, Sabo!” he cried excitedly, trying to catch his brother’s attention. But Sabo didn’t react. The blond just grinned. He was moving his mouth but Luffy couldn’t figure out what he was saying. There had to be somebody else with him.  
Just now, it occurred to Luffy that Sabo was a child. “Ehhh?” He pressed his nose to the glass, trying to get a better look. What had happened to him? Did he figure out a technique like Gear Third? But how? He had eaten Ace’s fruit, right? Logias weren’t supposed to react that weirdly.  
The area around Sabo was all rocks, grey nothingness. Then there was a movement, something black and white quickly moving towards the kidlike Sabo. Luffy’s stomach got tight. That was Bear. “Sabo, watch out! That guy’s really strong!” He caught a glimpse of somebody else, someone he didn’t recognize but he didn’t look human. Where in the world was Sabo?  
Before he could get any answers, the mirror got all foggy again. “Aw, no fair! What was that? What happened to Sabo?”  
He didn’t get an answer but the fog cleared and he saw the ocean, completely calm for a change. Years with Nami had taught him to not underestimate that calm, though. It didn’t take long before an all too familiar vessel strode right through it, causing waves to roll across the water. His stomach had been tight when he had seen Kuma but now it felt like somebody had punched right into it. His eyes became wide, his mouth dry and he saw his hands trembling where they lay on the cool glass. Suddenly, there wasn’t much air to breathe at all.  
“A-Ace?” he whispered, blinking against the sudden wetness in his eyes as he tried to follow the striker’s path across the water.  
More fog, but it cleared away quickly, showing a beach, obviously the scene of battle. Two figures circled each other, talking. Ace. And Jinbei. Both clearly heavily injured and with respect in their eyes as they looked at each other.  
Just what was going on?  
Anger filled him, starting in his gut and spreading all the way to his fingertips. He wanted to fight something, someone, and just barely kept from punching the precious mirror in front of him. Was it precious? Or was it taunting him? He couldn’t tell. He didn’t know and it was frustrating and why were his nakama and his brother fighting? When was this? Why was he seeing this?  
The mirror kept quiet which made him even angrier. He knew it could talk, so why didn’t it?  
So many questions and no answers. The mirror went black and for a second, he thought that had been it. It was over. That thought felt like falling from the sky all over again, just this time, it wasn’t fun.  
But it wasn’t and he immediately wished that it had been. Light and darkness were filling the sky, twirling around each other, fighting for dominance. They mixed together in one huge ball of fire and black nothingness. The island underneath was barely recognizable. He didn’t need a closer look for this one, he knew exactly what was happening, even though nobody had ever really filled him in on the how. If rage had filled him before, this was wrath and fury and pain.  
Blackbeard would pay for this. Luffy would take everything the guy treasured and he would crush it.  
Wiping his nose, he took deep breaths, grateful for the fog filling up the glass before he could see Ace hurt. He tried focusing his anger into his belly, the way Rayleigh had taught him. He needed to channel this, not lose his head. So much harder than the old guy made it look.  
Squaring his shoulders, lifting his head, he concentrated on the new scene. He saw Ace again but not in battle now, not distressed or hurt or in danger. He was laughing, smiling, a drink in his hand, and he couldn’t help but smile as well. His rage fell off him like a twig. Ace had been so happy as a pirate. He was surrounded by his nakama, his family. He saw the old man and the bird guy and all of the strong people who were at Marineford. There was even a dog. Sudden love for these people filled him, the people who had sacrificed everything for his brother and who had made his life so much fun. Ace had told him. Right before - These guys had loved him and he had loved them and so Luffy loved them, too. He would maybe have to fight some of them one day, but he’d so with a smiling face, he knew that. He wouldn’t go easy on them, though, Ace would kill him if he tried.  
Also, he needed to talk to the others, they had to get a pet, too. A real one. Chopper always got offended when people called him one.

 

The first thing Ace could make out was the sea. And green grass covering a cliff. The second thing he saw was the old man’s bisento The third thing was two big stones looking out at the sea. On one of them he spotted his own hat.  
He swallowed. Looking at his own grave wasn’t exactly high up on his to-do-list. They had buried him next to Whitebeard. A funny feeling. It was a beautiful spot but – had they talked that through? Had they been sure that he deserved to be next to him?  
He didn’t have long to think about it before a man appeared. He was tall and blond, wearing a top hat and… Ace had to reach out to steady himself on the mirror. Sabo. Of course, he had known that he was alive since he wasn’t up here but it was entirely different to actually see him. It was hard not to grin. Neither of them had anything you could call a fashion sense but really? Those were basically the exact clothes Ace had last seem him in 12 years ago. And was that a pipe? God, what would he give to tease him about that.  
Sabo sat down in front of the graves and poured some sake. Ace’s eyes stung a little at that. He remembered then. He remembered they were brothers.  
When Ace hadn’t found him up here, he had had questions. Where was he? Why had he never contacted them? He was immensely grateful that Sabo had not followed Luffy’s idiotic attempt and showed up at Marineford, but Ace still wanted to know if he was safe. He completely understood if he had wanted no more contact to him because knowing Ace was a dangerous thing to do. And Luffy wouldn’t accept anyone abandoning Ace, so that ruled him out as well. But if Sabo had wished no more contact and he seemed to be healthy, why would he visit his grave now? Why would he pour sake? There was a part of him that didn’t care though. A part that only rejoiced at the fact that Sabo had bothered to come at all.  
Ace tried to get a better look at Sabo’s face. God, it felt good to see that face again. But his stupid hat and his hair made it hard to really see it. He had grown it out and for the briefest second a thought appeared. It looks like mine. He chased it away. Tons of people grew their hair out at sea. Nobody cared much about it.  
There was something weird about his skin – Ace’s breath hitched. He knew a burn mark when he saw one. That was a scar, right there. Sabo had been hurt. His fists clenched at his sides. Bastards. Was that from when the tenryuubito had shot at his boat? It must be. There really must have been an accident and Sabo had been hurt but he did survive. Still. Hurting his brother was unforgivable.  
Sabo tipped his head back and Ace’s skin felt tingly when he realized that he was speaking. He was talking about Luffy, placing a newspaper in front of the grave. It was hard to see but there were a lot of portraits on the front page. He called Luffy their baby brother and Ace sniffed. Yeah, he was. He was still their responsibility, even after all these years. He was glad Sabo felt that way. Sabo mentioned his memories coming back so vividly after Ace’s death and – was that it? Ace’s breath came faster. Had he – had he lost his memories in the accident? His thoughts came rapidly. It would explain so much, it would explain why Sabo had never reached out to them, why they had never heard anything. Why he was at his grave now.  
Sabo kept talking, about someone named Ivan who had filled him in on Marineford and then Sabo apologized. It took a lot of his willpower not to punch the glass. Sabo had nothing to apologize for! Ace was so endlessly grateful he hadn’t shown up for the war, he was so grateful he had not put himself in danger. Sabo’s eyes glistened and Ace bit his lips in frustration. He had wished nobody would mourn him. It bothered him so much that he couldn’t tell Sabo that it was okay. Angry tears in his eyes were threatening to spill over.  
Everything became whirly, the lines seemed to disappear, as if he sailed his boat early in the morning or right into a fogbank. He blinked and another scene appeared. A room, a huge table and lots of people surrounding it. The table was covered in newspapers. Sabo stood in the middle and it would have been nice to finally get a clear look at his face had that face not been twisted in agony. Were those people threats? They didn’t look it. They actually seemed pretty concerned. Noise appeared out of nowhere as if his ears had been plugged with wax until now. But he wished there still wasn’t any because that scream belonged to Sabo and it hurt like hell to listen to him. Sabo was twisting his hands in his hair and screamed. Goosebumps covered Ace’s arm. Franticly, he tried to make out why his brother was in pain. He seemed unharmed but maybe he was missing something, something important… his gaze caught on the newspapers. Pictures of his own face. Luffy’s face.  
Understanding dawned on him. Sabo. Icy water seemed to fill his veins instead of blood. “No, please don’t…” he whispered. He wished so hard that his death didn’t hurt people. He had been ready to die from the day he was born, he was never really meant to grow old. He had accepted that at a very young age and it hurt to see others mourning him. Especially like this. Sabo was screaming like an animal trapped in a cage. He shouldn’t. They shouldn’t. He didn’t regret anything. After all, he had died protecting the people he loved most. What better way to go was there?  
“Sabo…” He wished he could comfort him. He wished he could do anything to make that look on Sabo’s face go away. Instead, he was stuck here, forced to be a bystander.  
He almost didn’t notice when the scene changed once more; he was too busy fighting his frustration settling low in his belly.  
It was outside, bright sunlight illuminating a huge arena. Huge fish were literally flying through the air and he saw a fighter jumping on top of one. His face was hidden from view, covered in a beard, sunglasses and something that looked like an ancient helmet. Just who… he realized that it must be one of his brothers otherwise he wouldn’t see them. They were both idiotic enough to dress up as an old man so that didn’t really help him at all. Everybody seemed to be completely focused on the guy as he got his hands on a box the fish was carrying on his back. Instead of opening it, he completely ripped the box apart, revealing – oh. That was the mera mera no mi. That was his… A weird emptiness filled his insides when he realized again that his powers were gone. He wasn’t fire anymore. He was nothing. Dead.  
No time to dwell on pitying himself because the guy grabbed the fruit and jumped onto a rock, wildly declaring himself the champion. The champion of what? Were they seriously giving his precious fruit out as a damned prize?  
That was when he recognized the now familiar scar on the guys face, barely visible through his costume. Sabo. A guy with a microphone said something. Did he just call Sabo Lucy? He must be undercover which would explain the costume. Sabo lifted the fruit into the air and – Ace barely noticed that he was holding his breath – took a bite. Chewed. And swallowed.  
The fog came back. Ace slowly exhaled. Sabo had eaten the mera mera no mi. Sabo had his powers now. He had participated in some kind of competition and won his fruit. He felt sick imagining some random guy winning and getting his powers instead but luckily, Sabo had prevented that happening. This must also mean that Sabo hadn’t eaten a devil’s fruit before. But he had still been strong enough to win that thing, whatever was going on there. It probably hadn’t been easy if they had had his fruit as a prize. He knew damn well how powerful it was. It wasn’t everything and it wasn’t easy to control but having that power was worth a whole lot out on the seas.  
“Thank god”, he murmured, running a hand through his hair. “It can help you. It can protect you.” His voice was quiet but he was the only one there anyway. He couldn’t talk to Sabo; he couldn’t tell him how grateful he was that he was still alive and that he had inherited his powers. He was just so… happy, right then.  
He needed to take another few breaths to calm himself down. Watching all of this, watching Sabo’s life without him was much harder than he had thought. He hadn’t seen Luffy yet, though, and he was starting to get worried. What was the little bastard up to?  
It didn’t take him long to get an answer. The fog disappeared and he saw Luffy in a hallway talking to two guys. He was oddly wearing the same costume as Sabo had been wearing but it was clearly him. He could see the scar underneath his eye and his straw hat was badly hidden. He was obviously trying to conceal his identity and was doing a ridiculous job at it. A fond smile stole itself onto his face. Idiot. He looked him over and he seemed okay. A huge scar covered his chest. That hadn’t been there at Marineford. Closing his eyes, he added a few more points to the lists of things he would do to Akainu once that guy got here. It was one of those times he regretted the fact that there wasn’t actually a hell the bad guys ended up in; everybody came here instead.  
Luffy turned around. Sabo was walking towards him through the darkened hallway, smiling. Wearing his normal clothes again.  
Ace couldn’t do much more than to breathe through the emotions of seeing his two brothers together again. It was overwhelming. They were alive and together.  
Miracles did happen sometimes.  
They were talking but the mirror had chosen again not to give him any sounds. It was really weird how randomly it decided to give him information. It wasn’t long until Luffy took a fighting stance. Ace frowned. Why would he do that?  
Sabo took his hat off, still smiling. And Luffy dropped the fighting stance. It was hard to tell but Ace thought he saw tears in his eyes before they got so huge they seemed to almost pop out of his head. Luffys behavior quickly became stranger and stranger, as he ran backwards, hitting a pole, yelling at Sabo and finally extending his arms, wrapping them around Sabo’s neck and catapulting himself straight onto the guy, bear hugging and apparently nearly suffocating him.  
It took him some time but then he realized, this must be the first time they met since their childhood. This was their reunion. This was Luffy realizing that he wasn’t alone, that he still had a brother, that Sabo was alive.  
Ace burst into tears. He couldn’t hold it back anymore. They were alive and together and everything was so right and so wrong, too, because he was supposed to be there as well. There were supposed to be three of them. He never regretted dying the way he did, but he did regret not being able to reunite with them.  
But this, this was what he had wanted to know. He had wanted to know if they knew about each other, he had wanted to see them.  
Taking a deep breath, he was about to turn around but the mirror apparently wasn’t done yet. Another battlefield appeared, grey stones all around, the smoke from too many pistols and canons going off at once making it hard to see.  
He would forever remember this scenery. He could still taste the air, could still hear the screams and the clanging of sword meeting sword, of steel meeting skin. Facing the mirror again, he tried to steel himself.  
Marineford. And that, right there, was his body. The hole in his chest almost looked tiny and insignificant compared to the way it had felt to have magma burn his organs. Sometimes, he could still feel it even though he knew there was not even a scar on his skin up here. He put a hand to his chest, feeling only smooth skin.  
Luffy was kneeling next to him. And it felt like dying all over again, just worse. So much worse. His little brother looked like he was the one dying, his face twisted in terror and agony, his eyes unseeing. Ace had never seen anything so painful in his life. The scream that came out of Luffy didn’t sound human, it sounded like something completely out of this world. His own knees starting shaking. What had he done? How could he have done this to him? How could he have caused so much pain? He never could do anything right, could he, not even sacrificing his life.  
His hands touched cool glass, desperately trying to reach his brother, to smooth his hair out of his face, to tell him it was going to be alright. To tell him to run now, to go, there was nothing left to do but to stay alive now, for him. But who was he to ask anything from the guy who had already sacrificed everything and still didn’t get what he came there for?  
A part of him had always hated himself, he had always struggled to see any worth in his own life. And right now, seeing what his death had done to the one he was supposed to protect, it came back full force. What kind of person did this to their own family?  
The scenes faded and changed, colors whirling together and apart again. Ace couldn’t watch, dropping his head. He wasn’t sure he could take anymore. Then again, maybe this was his punishment. Maybe this was what he had to do to make up for his failures.  
He didn’t know how much time had passed when he finally found the strength to look up again. There was a glimpse of something, of two familiar faces, one that he loved and one that he hated. But they were gone so soon, he wasn’t sure he really had seen them. The guy who destroyed everything by killing his own nakama and the guy whose smile looked like the sunrise. His enemy and his baby brother.  
Out of the twirling masses of color emerged a boat. It looked like the sun itself, too, but he didn’t recognize it before he saw the skull wearing a straw hat painted on the sail. Luffy’s ship. He must have gotten a new one. People were mingling on deck, training, sunbathing, talking to each other. He saw the ones he had met in Alabasta, the cook and the swordfighter and the reindeer, the navigator and the liar. Some new faces, too. Luffy burst out on deck, yelling and grinning and so alive, and everybody turned their head towards him, and as one, they smiled, jumping up. Luffy’s scar was widely visible. He seemed to almost wear it with pride. A tentative smile tugged at Ace’s lips. He was alright. Somehow, he had gotten up again.  
Not like he ever doubted his brother but he worried. Constantly.  
Their ship looked strange for a second before he realized that it was coated. There was a glimpse of Sabaody Archipelago in the back before the ship dived under the water, out of sight.  
On their way to Fishman Island, then. To the new world.  
“Be safe”, he murmured, tracing the glass where his brother just had been before new pictures appeared. Sabo, in a room similar to the one he had seen where Sabo had been crying after he had found out. People were surrounding him again, a girl that somehow reminded him of Luffy’s navigator – the same hair – and a guy sitting behind a desk, looking serious. A tattoo on his face. Ace had seen that face before; everybody had. The most wanted man in the world. Sabo was a revolutionary, then. Pride filled his chest and he couldn’t help smiling. Sabo looked happy, talking with his hands flying everywhere, the girl looking a little apologetic but there was fondness in her eyes. They looked like a good group.  
Fog started to block his view again, darker fog, before everything went black and then he only saw his own reflection again. He startled at seeing his own face, his eyes rimmed with red, tears staining his cheeks.  
Well. He had gotten what he wanted. They were fine. They were alive. They had met.  
Taking a deep breath, he got up and turned away. 

Sabo came back to a yelling Koala, tears in her eyes, but she stopped when he kept quiet, sitting down near the railing and pulling his hat over his eyes. “Let’s just leave.” 

Luffy came back to the ship to a yelling crew, asking where he’d been, but they soon shut up when they saw the look in his eyes.  
“We’re setting sail”, he stated, voice calm and old. “Also, I want a dog.”


End file.
